


Endless Night

by laireshi



Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: Angst, Gen, Suicide, Unhappy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-28
Updated: 2019-05-28
Packaged: 2020-03-20 14:40:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18994651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laireshi/pseuds/laireshi
Summary: Dante stops V in time. Things only go downhill from there.





	Endless Night

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not sorry. (Except perhaps to Nero. Don't worry; he's not harmed.)

The one thought that ran through Dante’s mind when Urizen went down was that _he_ was still standing. 

Of course. He could never be so lucky. And the job wasn’t done yet, anyway. 

He stepped forward to finish it—he liked that verb, such an impersonal description, _finish the job_ , right, could mean anything like sign the papers Morrison wanted him to fill out every now and then or put his things away when his mum had insisted when he and Vergil were children . . . It could've meant nothing, but it figured that in his case it was to _kill his own twin brother_. Again.

Footsteps behind him stopped him dead in his tracks. He knew who it was—there weren’t many options, after all, though he hoped he’d be fast enough not to have any witnesses. Neither Nero nor V should be there for that, for very different reasons.

At least V wouldn’t be surprised. He fucking _asked_ Dante to do it. That might be the only thing Dante _can’t_ forgive him. 

“Is that really your brother?” Nero sounded disbelieving. Shocked. 

_Been telling stories, V? Told him you’re his dad, too? Or did you fucking miss that too in your pursuit of power?_

Dante wasn’t even sure what he told the kid in reply. His eyes were set on Urizen. It was better to think of him this way, like it wasn’t Vergil he was about to kill, but in the end it changed nothing. Dante’s sword was heavy in his hands.

V’s skin was cracking. He seemed more dead than alive. He wasn’t similar to Vergil at all, which was a small mercy, but Dante didn’t want him there all the same. He didn’t _want_ to see him falling down for the final time. 

He was surprised when V started walking towards Urizen, weak and shaking yet determined. His stubbornness, at least, remained unchanged. 

“Let me,” V whispered. “I want to end this battle . . . with my own hands.”

Dante should have be ashamed at the relief that coursed through him. _Like this doesn’t make it your fault_ , he thought bitterly. _Like it absolves you of anything. Like it means you’ll be able to face tomorrow_.

He watched V climb on top of Urizen. He heard him speak. He realised he was mistaken.

 _Never should’ve trusted any part of Vergil_.

He ran.

Everything was in sharp focus. V’s movements, slow but steady, him raising his cane . . . If Dante had Vergil’s powers, he’d have reached him in less than one shallow breath. He couldn't do that, though, so he extended his hands as he jumped.

He knocked V aside in the last moment and they went tumbling down from Urizen’s gargantuan body, V’s cane flying to the side. V ended up on top of him once they stopped rolling, but it didn’t mean anything. He was barely able to hold himself upright over Dante. 

“The fuck, Dante?!” Nero yelled. Dante paid him no mind.

He locked his eyes with V. “So _that’s_ what defeating him was about, huh?”

“ _Terror the human form divine_ ,” V let out. “Look at me, Dante, and tell me what you see.”

 _A dying man_. 

Dante had enough. He pushed V off himself. He made himself get up. He _knew_ what he had to do, so there was no point putting it off. Not with Nero there, who might oh so helpfully decide to end Urizen himself, and Dante _couldn’t_ let him do that, not even if the kid would never learn the truth. And he wouldn’t, if Dante had anything to say about that. No one needed that kind of a burden in their life.

He wanted to close his eyes. He didn’t. He raised his sword and plunged it into Urizen’s heart.

 _Now reap what you sow_.

The gigantic body crumpled in on itself into something not unlike the humans attacked by the Qliphoth. Dante breathed heavily. He yanked his sword out, and Urizen’s remains turned to ash.

 _It’s not the first time. It shouldn’t hurt that much_.

He turned towards V, but he swayed on his legs. He felt alien in his own body. All those years, all those fights, and for what? To end up back against Vergil? 

He'd used to pray for him to come back. He'd used to hope for a miracle. He should’ve known better than that. There were no miracles; only still unrealised curses.

V was lying down, facing him, his eyes half-closed.

“Dante?” Nero was at his side suddenly. “You okay?”

Dante laughed to cover a sob. “Never been better, kid.” He pushed his sword into Nero’s hands. “Keep that for a moment, will you. I have _another_ part of my brother to deal with.”

“Another?” Nero followed Dante’s gaze to V. “But—”

“ _Family_ issue, Nero,” Dante growled at him. Nero actually backed off at that. Good; Dante couldn’t spare him more thought. Not now. He looked around wildly. Urizen had had the Yamato and Dante _needed_ it. Where could it . . . _Ah_. He collected it from where it lay down a few metres away, sheathed. 

At last, he knelt next to V. V’s fingers stretched out, grabbed at the Yamato like it was a comfort. 

“So that’s how it ends,” V mused. 

_Fuck it_ , Dante thought, gathering him in his arms. He hadn’t hugged Vergil since they were _eight_. It was too late to change anything now, but he still wanted to touch him.

“Dante.” V’s voice was less than a whisper. “Are you crying?”

“It’s raining, you asshole.” Always the same excuse.

“ _Love is the child . . . that scatters death._ ”

He got that one right.

“You had to come back for _that_ ,” Dante said. “I missed you for _years_ , Vergil, and you came back and _nothing changed_. We never could’ve existed without fighting, could we?”

V raised his hand, shaking, to Dante’s face. “I never realised you cared, brother.”

“You _left_ ,” Dante accused. How was Vergil ever to realise there was more to the life than the pursuit of power if he’d never been there with Dante? And then he forced Dante to fight him, and—and—

V’s hand fell down; the Yamato slid out of his numb fingers. 

_You never told him you loved him_.

Dante grabbed at him, tried to hold his body in his arms just a moment longer, but it was futile. V had been slowly falling apart for hours. He dissolved between one heartbeat and the next, leaving Dante with nothing at all.

Nothing; except for the Yamato.

 _It’s almost as if Vergil did it_. _Murder, not a . . ._

He had used his brother’s sword in the past. Had trained with it, even, when they were kids. It had never really fit his grip, had always been Vergil’s, connected with his soul.

_See you in hell, brother._

(As if either of them was human enough to have that chance.)

Dante unsheathed the Yamato and plunged it into his own heart.

**Author's Note:**

> I show my love for the characters by killing them, okay.
> 
> This fic also has a [twitter](https://twitter.com/tonytears/status/1133167880126771200) and a [tumblr](https://laireshi.tumblr.com/post/185188165482/endless-night) post.


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